Bite of Eugene

I guess it’s no big secret that we live in Eugene, Oregon. I’m not really even sure why I’ve avoided saying it. There it is.

Saturday night we went to “Bite of Eugene” at a local park. Husband and I had decided we would each have a $10 budget. We got to sample so much food (mine better than his)! We waited until after 6 o’clock to try and let it cool off a little outside; the temperature did finally start dropping and there was enough shade to make it bearable.

There were so many vendors there!

My dinner started out with an excellent first course from Viva Vegetarian Grill, a foot-long vegetarian hot dog. Even my voraciously carnivorous husband admitted that it was really good.

Also, my shirt was unbuttoned like that for at least 15-20 minutes before I realized it. Thanks, Husband and fellow Eugenians for allowing me to indecently expose myself at a family event.

Husband tried all kinds of meat things since all the vendors had their version of “a bite” for $1-$2.

This was some kind of barbecue that he was not impressed by.

Similar story for the lamb something-or-other on a pita.

There was even an iron chef competition for chefs of local restaurants. The guy on the left is the chef at Cafe Lucky Noodle and the guy on the right is the chef at Rabbit Bistro.

I was pretty excited about this event, but all-in-all, it was a disappointment. The mikes and sound system (and super-obnoxious people talking really loudly about their travel tribulations) were weak, making it hard to hear the chefs when they spoke and impossible to hear the judges. The emcee was making a valiant effort to be entertaining, but it all just seemed very haphazard and lazy. Also, everyone was too polite. I like reality TV, y’all. Step it up.

Husband had this chocolate and hazelnut covered doughnut hole from Holy Donuts! He said that he liked it but/because it reminded him of the Hostess Gems packaged doughnuts. Take from that what you will.

But this is what I was truly excited about. Hot days almost always make me long for shave ice. It’s my mom’s fault since it was her default solution for sweaty, whiny, Southern children.

I stood in line for over 20 minutes for this shave ice. Didn’t take me one minute to decide on bubblegum and blue coconut as my flavors of choice.

Delish.

He ate “two bites” of ice cream, blueberry cheesecake and chocolate, while I was waiting in line for my shaved ice.

Samba Ja played and I can only describe it as the penultimate Eugene experience. I took some videos with my phone and will try to see if I got anything worth uploading soon. Mostly, I just wanted this one woman’s gold sneakers (sadly not visible in any of my photos).

Husband posing with the “mascot” for the event. I don’t know what it is. Marketing fail.